Electricity, gas load-shedding: industrialists, trade bodies announce to stage protests

More than 600 industrial units including textile processing, sizing, dyeing, finishing, stitching, packing industries were closed for next 84 hours, here on Friday, due to the cut-down of gas supply by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL).
Furthermore, six-hour load-shedding of electricity in the industrial areas is adding fuel to the fire. Reacting to this situation, industrialists and labour unions have announced to launch protestation from December 31, 2010 and invited Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif to lead the procession to 'save the industry and national exports of the country'.
The suspension of gas and electricity has halted industrial production activities, resulting thousands of daily wages employees losing their livelihood, while prevailing severe price hike is making new records of poverty in the Punjab.
Residents of different parts of the industrial city complained about low gas pressure, affecting cooking and other domestic chores. People, most of them women, took out processions and blocked the traffic by burning tiers on the roads. Some processions reached the regional office of SNGPL situated at Sargodha Road, encircled the offices more than two hours and blocked the traffic. They were carrying banners and unbaked breads to register protest.
They protestors demanded immediate restoration of gas of the city areas where routine life of every home has been affected due to the non-availability of gas. The consumers demanded of the authorities to look into the matter and address it on urgent basis as they are facing a cold weather ahead.
Khuwaja Shahid Razzaq Sikka, President, Anjuman-e-Tajran and other trade organisations expressed concerns over the load-shedding of electricity and gas and termed statements of the federal government, pertaining to ending energy shortage in the textile industry, as rhetoric. Sikka appreciated the efforts of Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif who is actively trying to save the industry and workforces. At the federal level, nobody has bothered to solve the problems of the peoples of Punjab, he added.
Talking to newsmen, Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) North Zone said that gas suspension plan would have a very negative impact on the entire industrial sector. This sector, he added, is already passing through very challenging times due to acute shortage of electricity and a bad law and order situation.
He feared that not only the exports and productions would nose-dive, but the graph of unemployment would also go up as a large number of industrial units would be left with no other option but to close down their operations if the gas suspension plan is not shelved.
Salamat questioned as to how the industry would be able to manage export orders worth millions of dollars when there is no gas and electricity. He recalled that Prime Minister Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced two-day gas load-shedding a week, but SNGPL has continued their planned programme of prolonged gas shedding. What about thousands of daily wagers who have a single source of income in the prevailing severe price hike, how the government would convince local and foreign investors for industrial investment when it is unable to manage the supply of gas to existing industrial units, he asked.
Chairman PHMA, North Zone pointed out that Chief Minister Punjab had raised the issue of gas shedding in a meeting with the Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, who ordered SNGPL officials to observe shutdown for just two days and devise a strategy to observe uniform shut-down across the board. However, SNGPL has announced 84 hours suspension of gas for the 600 industrial units. He lamented the high-handedness of SNGPL officials violating PM's directive and announcements in media.